Jude Braud, 14; his friend Kenneth Hunter, 16; and Quintina Tolbert, 23, allegedly called two cabs out on Dec. 8 to an abandoned house in the 7th Ward, hoping to mug the driver. The first cabbie grew wary and passed on the fare because the address he pulled up to was a blighted home, according to police testimony in a juvenile court hearing Wednesday.

A juvenile court judge decided Wednesday that Kenneth Hunter, 16, should be tried as an adult.

Tolbert was booked into Orleans Parish jail on one count of first-degree murder about 12:30 a.m. Saturday, according to jail records. Hunter was also sent to parish jail after a juvenile court judge determined Wednesday that he should be tried for first-degree murder as an adult. Braud, meanwhile, remains jailed at the juvenile facility facing one count of second-degree murder, until a judge decides whether he too should be tried as an adult.

While Tolbert faces a life prison sentence or execution if she is tried and convicted, Hunter can only receive a life sentence if he is eventually convicted for the same crime. The Supreme Court four years ago banned the death penalty for anyone younger than 18.

Police accuse Tolbert of inviting the two teens to her home in the 1400 block of Annette Street. There, she allegedly told them, "I want to hit a lick," slang for committing a robbery, Detective Harold Wischan of the NOPD said in a juvenile courtroom.

Wischan, recounting conclusions drawn from the investigation and interviews with the suspects, said the short, pudgy, dreadlock-wearing Braud asked, "What lick?" Tolbert answered, "A cab ride." Braud then called United for a taxi on Hunter's sister's cell phone, asking the dispatcher to send a driver to an address in the nearby 1600 block of North Robertson Street, Wischan said.

However, the accused robbers' first mark opted against picking up the fare.

Wischan accused Tolbert of then calling United for another cab. Kasravi, a native of Iran who joined the cab agency in 1995, answered the call.

Conflicting narratives emerged about what happened next. Wischan said Hunter told detectives that he waited as his 14-year-old friend and the 23-year-old, toting a gun, approached Kasravi to rob him. Hunter claimed that he walked away, down North Robertson to St. Bernard Avenue, as his two friends and Kasravi spoke.

Hunter told Wischan that he heard a gunshot and saw Braud and Tolbert, still carrying the gun, run toward him.

Tolbert, on the other hand, said she wanted to back out of the robbery and trailed the two teens, who approached the cabbie from the passenger side, Wischan testified. She instead asked Kasravi for a cigarette, but he didn't understand her. She accused Hunter of growing agitated and leaning into the window to shoot Kasravi, Wischan testified.

Either way, Kasravi was shot in the shoulder. The bullet cut into his chest.

A bystander parked down the block in a car behind Kasravi only heard a gunshot and saw "two or three" boys in black shirts and black pants scurry past him and turn on Annette Street, Wischan said. A woman followed, walking slowly. She locked eyes with the bystander as she turned down Annette Street, and he called 911, Wischan testified.

Paramedics later took Kasravi to a hospital, where he died.

Detectives probing the slaying traced the first call to United to Hunter's sister's phone and determined Braud made it, Wischan said. Hunter pointed detectives toward Tolbert, who confessed her involvement, according to a police report filed in court. They found a .22-caliber gun and a black T-shirt hidden under her porch, Wischan testified.

They later arrested all three.

The boys' defense attorneys called their arrests premature. The bystander didn't see who shot Kasravi and couldn't remember if a total of three or four people passed him afterward. Wischan testified that the taxi had not yet been processed , so the boys' fingerprints were not known to be on the taxi. The attorneys also argued that there was no proof that the gun or shirt belonged to either of them.

Braud's attorney, Clifton Davis, argued that the 14-year-old shouldn't have even been booked because no account portrayed him as the shooter.

Judge David Bell, however, found cause for their arrest. They both admitted to being there, Bell said. Evidence suggests that though no one accused Braud of firing the fatal shot, he waited around for the robbery.

Hunter, clad in a hooded jacket, sunk into his chair and covered his face with his left hand after Bell announced his decision. When he walked outside, he bent over, sobbed and said, "I didn't kill nobody." A deputy walked the two boys away from the courtroom. A man who identified himself in court as Hunter's parent briefly walked along the 16-year-old, hugging him.

"Are they going to set bail?" Hunter asked. The man choked back tears and explained, "Kenneth, they are (booking) you with first-degree murder. They don't set bail for first-degree murder."